Graham Spanier, left, and head football coach Joe Paterno chat before an NCAA game against Iowa in State College, Pa., in 2011. / Gene J. Puskar, AP

by Kevin Johnson and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

by Kevin Johnson and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier and two other former administrators were charged Thursday with perjury, obstruction of justice and endangering children in an alleged coverup of sexual abuse of children by assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Prosecutors said all three officials knew of complaints involving Sandusky showering with boys in 1998 and 2001 and failed to take action to stop it.

"This is about three powerful and influential men, three men who used their positions at Penn State to cover up and conceal the activities of (Sandusky),'' said Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly in announcing the charges.

Sandusky, 68, was convicted this summer of 45 criminal counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys and received a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years. He has maintained his innocence and is pursuing appeals.

On Wednesday, he was transferred to a prison in southwestern Pennsylvania that includes most of the state's death row inmates, the Associated Press reported.

The three administrators were accused of turning a blind eye to Sandusky's "serial predatory acts" -- some of which occurred at Penn State athletic facilities -- by failing to notify police or even attempt to learn the identity of the victims.

Spanier is charged with five criminal counts, while former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, who are already charged with perjury and failure to report child abuse, face new allegations of conspiracy, obstruction and endangering children.

The attorney general accused them of showing "callous lack of concern" for Sandusky's victims.

"This was not a mistake by these men, this was not an oversight, it was not misjudgment on their part," she said. "This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials to actively conceal the truth."

Defense attorneys for Spanier said in a written statement that their client "has committed no crime.''

"There is no factual basis to support these charges,'' Spanier's lawyers said in a joint statement.

Curley attorney Caroline Roberto said her client is "innocent of all charges. Schultz had no immediate comment.

Curley and Schultz are scheduled for trial in January on earlier perjury and failure-to-report charges in the Sandusky case.

Penn State spokesman David La Torre said Thursday that Spanier, who continued to serve as a tenured professor after he was fired as president in November, "will be placed on leave, effective immediately."

The charges against the 64-year-old Spanier involve statements he made to a grand jury in 2011 in which he denied being aware of a university police investigation of Sandusky over a shower incident.

The charges stem in part from evidence uncovered in a report last summer by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was tasked by the university to investigate the Sandusky case. Spanier and his attorney have denounced the Freeh report.

The report concluded that Spanier, Curley, Schultz and then-coach Joe Paterno concealed Sandusky's activities from the university trustees and "empowered" the abuse by giving him access to school facilities and the prestige of his university affiliation.

In the 1998 case, the earliest criminal investigation of Sandusky's activities, university police reviewed allegations brought by a young victim's mother who became suspicious of the former coach after learning that he had showered with her son following a workout at the university.

A local prosecutor decided not to charge Sandusky at the time but, according to the new charging documents filed Thursday, police briefed Schultz on the matter, who then informed both Curley and Spanier of the allegations.

According to Schultz's handwritten notes from his briefings with police, the former administrator wrote: "Is this opening pandoras box? Other children?''

The victim in the case, previously designated by the grand jury as "Victim 6,'' went on to testify against Sandusky earlier this year.

In the 2001 incident, the three men and head football coach Joe Paterno were informed of Sandusky's suspicious activities with another young boy in a university shower witnessed by then-graduate assistant Michael McQueary.

Spanier told the Freeh team that he believed at the time that the incident amounted to "horseplay," although an e-mail sent by him to Curley reflected a much more somber tone.

In a series of messages, according to court documents, the men "formulated'' a plan to handle the matter that specifically involved not contacting youth authorities or police.

Curley, in an e-mail dated Feb. 27, 2001, allegedly informed Spanier and Schultz that he would meet with Sandusky and urge him to get "professional help.''

"Additionally, I will let him know that his guests are not permitted to use our facilities,'' the Curley e-mail said.

Spanier allegedly responded, saying the "approach is acceptable to me.''

"The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,'' Spanier wrote. "But that can be assessed down the road. The approach you outline is humane and reasonable.''

Paterno was fired in the wake of the scandal after 45 years as head coach. He died in January.